Search This Blog

Friday, February 17, 2017

[Seoul, Hongdae] Kakao Friends Concept Museum Seoul + Store

I am going to tell you about the Kakao Friends Concept Museum in Hongdae!
Don't worry, I am not going to give away all the design insights and backstories so you can really enjoy your own visit. However, I might post some videos on my Instagram, so follow me for that!

Who's your favorite character?Tip #1: you MUST Book online! (Requires a credit card)

Tip #2: Pre-book it as far in advance as you can if you want to ensure you can get in at the time/date you want to go.
You can book two weeks in advance! The tickets do sell out and they're timed!

Tip #3: Make sure you print or have access to your confirmation email! They will check it since they do not allow anyone in without pre-booking!

Tip #4: Save your ticket! Each ticket gives you 3000 KRW off at the Kakao Friends Concept Museum Gift Shop (not the Kakao Friends Flagship store). That means, you get your money back in merchandise purchases.

As you enter, you have to go to the ticketing window and get the physical paper ticket and exhibition guide. You'll see this cute line of Kakao Friends characters waiting in line.

This is the only picture I'll put on the blog to show you the contents of the exhibition because otherwise it'd ruin the surprise. Sorry folks!

You get to learn about every single character and their full official backstory! (Muzi (pickled radish in a bunny costume), Con (crocodile-esque), Apeach (peach), Ryan (lion without a mane), Tube (duck), Neo (cat), Frodo (dog), and Jay-G (mole).

You also learn about the design process for a variety of the emoticon sets and also the characters themselves. Teaser: Did you know Apeach was first imagined as a different fruit?

Otherwise, my parents also commented that this is a genius marketing stunt, which it totally is! Korea is so good at genius marketing.

We spent a long time in there, like kind of an embarrassingly long amount of time.

Museum Store Teaser:
To help you budget for your trip, thought I'd share some museum store shots. Remember you get 3,000 KRW off of your purchase of 3,000 KRW or more.

They have some Concept Museum hoodie Ryan dolls, they are 12,000 KRW (so 9,000 KRW with your discount).

They also have Tsum Tsum-esque dolls of the baby Kakao Friends (you're introduced to them in the museum!) for 6,000 KRW (3,000 KRW after discount)

If you want something that's not so cutesy, they have some cute kitchenware items like these tumblers and coffee mugs. They weren't outrageously expensive and I was tempted by them, but I have a plethora of coffee mugs in my tiny house.

My purchases:

If you can't tell, my favorite character is Ryan. I ended up using my ticket for a 2000 KRW Concept Museum notebook and a 1000 KRW Ryan postcard.

So, my total purchase cost: 0 KRW! My favorite price!

So cute!

Location: Hongik University (line 2) Exit 8
Go out the exit and as you're facing the bank, turn left right away and walk towards exit 9 (as if you were walking back down the stairs).